127.
A ‘FAMILLE VERTE’ BALUSTER VASE, GUANYIN ZUN
Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, early 18th century
44,5 cm high
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 3863.
The three personages depicted on the body of this vase are collectively known as Fu Lu Shou, or the ‘Three Star Gods’ (sanxing) because each of them is related to a particular star or planet, respectively connoting happiness, wealth and longevity. Fuxing, here portrayed on the left side of the scene, identified with Jupiter, is usually depicted as an old man with a child in his arms, being the children the greatest blessing for Chinese society. Luxing, the standing man at the centre of the composition and related to the Ursa Majoris, is the god of rank and emolument; he usually holds in his hand a hu tablet, which is a symbol of high rank in the official bureaucracy. The third figure on the right is Shouxing, the god of longevity and the emblem of Canopus, the star of the South Pole in Chinese astronomy; his main characteristics are the large cranium, the long eyebrows and beard, all signs of a venerable age; while helping to support himself with a walking stick, he holds in his right hand a peach, which is the fruit the Daoist immortals eat to prolong their supernatural condition.
A similar composition of deities could be seen on a vase of the same shape in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (see He Li, Chinese Ceramics. The New Standard Guide, London 1996, n. 645); see also the related piece in the Musée national des Arts asiatiques-Guimet, Grandidier collection (inv. n. G 1511).
